Final Outcome Archive Links //
An Illustrated Essay
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As part of the Visual Thinking unit we were briefed by another tutor to write a 2,500 word essay comparing two pieces of design in relation to propaganda or ethics. I had attended lectures about Propaganda over the course of this unit so I understood that the focus of the essay should really be about the ideas, intentions and ethics around my chosen design pieces, rather then just the graphic styling.
The briefing for this assignment in January came just before the events on the 7th January 2015 in France which are more commonly recognised now as Je Suis Charlie. Seeing the mass adoption of this phrase and imagery indicated the idea of propaganda and so I thought this would be an interesting topic to focus my essay on. I understand the events are still very raw so my opinion of the events is not something I wanted to include in my essay – I would focus on the response illustrations which were released on social media shortly after the events.
Advised by my tutor, I am not going to publish much information on this blog due to ethical reasons. Here is a small selection of research I carried out in order to form the foundations in which I could begin writing my essay on.
a few Berlin snaps
5 Days in Berlin
Day 1 //
On February 9th I flew out to Berlin alongside friends from my university course. On the first day out of 5 we went to visit Berlin’s government building – The Reichstag, and the Brandenburg Gate. The architectural design of the Reichstag was incredible and allowed us to look over the night sky of Berlin and the Brandenburg Gate.
Day 2 //
Before our scheduled activities, I set out with some peers to visit the Brandenburg Gate in the day time as well as travelling across Berlin to find the end of the Berlin Mauer (Wall). This was where the East Side Gallery was, which featured incredible street art and murals. In the afternoon we paid a visit to the famous Stasi Prison in East Berlin, Gedenkstatte Berlin-Hohenschonhausen. We were shown round by an ex-con in the prison who gave us an amazing understanding of the culture, conditions and procedure of Berlin and the prison itself.
Day 3//
Scheduled in for a visit to the Hamburger Banhohf art exhibition, we travelled out of our base near Alexandra Pltz. to witness a beautifully designed building holding great art pieces. We then tried some Curry Wurst. It was amazing.
Day 4 //
On the last full day of our trip, I was lucky enough to meet Sebastian Bissinger from Bank Associates. His inspiring talk triggered a new thought perspective and has seriously made me consider the opportunity of studying abroad in Berlin. We also went to visit the Type Museum which featured lost and found letters used for shop signs since the start of the 20th Century.
Day 5 //
We flew home 😥
Summary
Now that our project has come to an end with a final outcome, me and my partner believe it is important to analyse the work that we have created. To summarise our piece, we will analyse what we liked, what we could of improve/developed, and overall conclude the whole outcome.
Me and my partner may have different opinions of our project, so our evaluation might be slightly different. The image below shows an analysis of our final outcome and how each sense fell into the ranking. This technique was inspired by a TED Talk by Jinsop Lee, Design for all 5 Senses.
Personal Evaluation
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Strong Areas
When me and my partner Perry Rowe set out to work on this brief, we were somewhat overwhelmed by the initial ideas we were coming up with – seeming as our subject was Jack the Ripper. Although we had several gruesome ideas floating about throughout the process, we whittled it down to one simple idea which we felt could offer a unique solution to depicting Jack the Ripper. Seeming as the Ripper is somewhat a myth and no one knew his identity, we had to produce a 3D model which would solve the problem of not having to visualise the Ripper himself but better yet, represent him through his victims. This made our idea even simpler as he conducted very similar acts on all his victims so it just became a case of how we would make our letters to look like his victims. However, this is besides the point, I feel our core concept for this assignment was a strong basis for our design.
In terms of the box, we wanted to create something era specific so me and my partner are both very proud of the outcome due to our lack of experience in wood working, laser cutting, engraving and the other processes involved. We wanted to stain our purchased 4-ply Hard Plywood in order to add ageing so it would look more like the wood interior floorboards of where some victims were found. The incorporation of the bed sheet was to relate to one of his victims being found in her own bed – it was also a tool used to increase the contrast between our letters and the wood.
Our choice of typeface for the 3D letters and emblem were not among our initial ideas. We started by looking into era specific typefaces which were used in the press releases about Jack the Ripper. However when we began to make paper and digital mock-ups we opted for a bold and rigid san serif adaption of the font Intro. From this we also created a small engraved emblem for our assignment and wooden box. I am very much proud of the outcome of this. I would though experiment with staining the wood before engraving to enhance contrast between wood layers.
Areas of Improvement
It is unfortunate that a key area for improvement for me are the 3D letters. Although I feel the aesthetic styling of them was carried out very well, when it comes to the 5 senses, in order to make the letters represent the bodies of his victims, I felt the Touch sense needed to be improved. This could have possibly been achieved by sourcing other materials like Silicone – with more time this would have been a worthwhile experiment. The colour of the skin tone could have also been improved. Although we wanted the letters to look dead, they are too pink for my liking.
A small imperfection was on the sliding lid of the wooden box. I believe our calculations were all correct but unfortunately our engraving designs cut into the wood slightly off centre. This was unfortunate as we didn’t have enough time to re-do this mistake but overall I feel our wooden box was a success and I am very pleased with it.
One last area of improvement is on our printed promotional material. I feel the design of the prints are very good but I do wish to point out that the contrast of the black and white imagery could have been improved – it looks a little washed out to me. But overall, we both worked on this style to extend it from poster to postcard format and I am happy with the visual styling of it – adding a modern style layout to an old Jack the Ripper mystery.
Printed Material // Outcome
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Here is the outcome for our printed material that will go with our 3D Typography task. We have created a poster which was designed by Perry Rowe, and a postcard from Steven O’Neil. Both pieces are the same in terms of style and colour scheme etc, however, the layout had to become fluid as orientation and dimensions were changed.
Printed Design // Production
Effects
To achieve this effect, we screen printed the title, we used a specific brush as an eraser in Photoshop and simply used this to erase the edges of the type. We didn’t want to go over board with this as it would look fake and over worked. The element was multiplied on top of the photography to make it look more like it has been screen printed.
Typeface
For the typeface, we wanted something that connects with the era of Jack the Ripper, so for this idea, we used a serif transitional font for the body text of our printed material. This will simulate the typeface style used in the media back in the 19th century. For the title, we wanted a font that represents Jack the Ripper. Similar to the letter form in the 3D task, we wanted a style that was harsh and sharp edges.
Development of Printed Material
Replacing the blocks, we included the content that we thought was necessary for the poster. The content included typefaces and colour schemes we discussed and explored previously.
We then simply blocked in the basic layout using square forms.
With a chosen layout from our sketches, we then created a grid which will structure our content aligned with the layout he decided to choose from the drawings.
My and my partner started off by analysing our final outcome for the other section of the brief. This gave us an understanding of what will work for the printed material in terms of styling and mood. We then carry out a few basic sketches which led to more developed layout drawings through selection.
3D Model // Final Photo Outcomes
TYPOGRAPHY AS A SEMIOTIC RESOURCE
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Our brief was to work collaboratively as partners and receive a randomly selected name of a celebrity or well known person. The task was to take their two initial letters and design and make three dimensional letters which amplify and reflect the essential elements of the subjects character and personality. We were also briefed to produce a photograph and design a piece of printed material as a promotional item.
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As the subject of our brief we were given Jack the Ripper. In response, we wanted to reflect not who we was, but what he did, since this is what he is most known for. To visualise this idea, we aimed to recreate the murder scenes by manipulating the type to look like his victims.
Miniature Mocks
In order to help us begin understanding our choices in terms of format, we began creating small mock-ups which we could present to each other and also our tutor in tutorials. The brief required we produce a piece of promotional print material so therefore this could be anything from a poster to a business card.
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